Hunter of Hunters
by Varangian Guard
Summary: DEAD
1. Chapter 1

Gehrman was dead. That, Moon Demon, was dead. I had slaughtered everything in my way for what? Glory? Bloodlust? A false sense of heroics? It didn't matter. Either way the past would be the past. I thought Gehrman had gone insane, like many Hunters before him had, and needed to be put down when he asked to kill me. I immediately refused the offer, but he was ready for something like that to happen. It was so vivid, my long and drawn out battle with The First Hunter.

After defeating him I thought it would be over, but I was sorely mistaken Something came down from the moon, I was drawn in and wanted it to let it have me, but that feeling immediately disappeared as soon as it embraced me. Something happened and my thoughts and free will suddenly came back. I pushed back the beast and it snarled at me. I knew it wanted a fight, and I would happily oblige. The battle was somehow harder than Gehrman, the nightmare was fierce, but I bested it, like every beast before it.

I knew something was wrong the moment that the nightmare fell, though. My body felt like it was falling apart, my bones felt like they were breaking, my brain felt as if it were going to explode. But I resisted. I screamed out as loud as I could, and attempted to fight whatever was happening to my body. It felt like years before I noticed that I wasn't in pain anymore, not trying to fight whatever tried to take over my body, but even after all of that I looked… different.

I was taller for one. My normal 6' frame had shot up at least 7 inches. I wasn't surprised when my Hunter gear didn't properly fit me anymore, but I could just get another set from the bath messengers. I looked at my reflection in the Blade of Mercy and pulled my scarf down to see if my face had changed at all. I was surprised to see that my short beard had gone from a dirty blond to a jet black. My eyes stayed the same, though, the right eye blue and the left green. Nobody knew why they were like that, and I was often called a freak and beaten up by others for it when I was younger.

I continued looking at my face and saw no other differences besides the new hair color and a slightly paler skin tone.

"What has happened to me?" I quietly asked myself as I started to walk out of the field and toward the doll. I saw something the the corner of my eye, though, and looked to my right. I saw the scythe that Gehrman had tried to kill me with. I walked up to it and picked it up. It was… surprisingly lightweight for how large it was. I knew it was some sort of trick weapon just by looking at it, so I looked over it to see if there was anything to detach. It took some time but I finally saw that I could take the blade off of the scythe, and it looked like some sort of longsword. I folded up the handle and put it on my back.

"Alright, I need to leave this godforsaken place now. I can no longer stand it." I said as I started to walk out of the field again. Nothing stopped me that time and I returned to the path. I saw the Doll looking at me with a blank expression on her face, like usual.

"Hello, good Hunter. I see you are well" She said with the same monotone voice that she always used.

"Hello, Doll" I responded curtly "And yes, I am fine, though I had to kill Gehrman and some sort of nightmare."

"I see. You did seem… troubled when you walked out of the grove. May I ask why you have grown so tall?"

"Well, I changed after I killed that nightmare. My hair darkened and I grew much taller. I don't know how, but I do feel much stronger."

"What did the beast look like, if I may ask?"

"It was indescribable. A mess of legs and tentacles. It tried to grab me and I was strangely allured to it, but I resisted and killed it."

"I see… It seems that you fought a Great One, good Hunter" The Doll giggled a bit and sighed. "And yet you did not transform into one. Interesting. Did anything happen to you after you had slain the beast?"

"Well a surging pain erupted across most of my body and I felt like I was changing into something new, it felt as if my bones were breaking and rearranging themselves, my skin melting off. I don't know how long I fought it, but the pain eventually subsided and my body changed."

"Most interesting, other things may have changed inside of you, Hunter. Things unimaginable. You may have become partly Great One."

I was shocked. Was I now some sort of God? I just thought that my looks changed, but it seemed that wasn't the case. I smiled a little bit at this thought, though. I knew I wasn't a full-fledged Great One, only partly.

"What does this mean? For me, at least?" I asked the Doll, genuinely curious.

"I don't really know, dear Hunter, but there is no doubt that you are immensely more powerful now than you were." I was surprised at that statement. I was already immensely powerful before, being able to take on the most vicious of foes.

"Thank you for the information, Doll, but I must go back to Yharnam and think on this while slaughtering beasts. I do need to train with this new scythe, after all."

"Then farewell, good Hunter."

I swiftly turned around and started walking toward the tombstone to Yharnam and traveled to the Cathedral Ward to test out my new weapon on some weak prey.

…..

A week had passed since my "Ascension" as I liked to call it. The moment I started fighting I could see the new power that I possessed. Blood soaked my Hunter gear at all times, with me never needing to go back to the dream for anything. Beasts came at me in droves that I was unaccustomed to, however, and I had to adapt accordingly. A horde killed me once on my first day, when I was still unaccustomed to my new power. The looming red moon in the sky made everything seem much more atmospheric for my slaughter, too, and I appreciated it for the first time since the veil was broken.

I didn't know why the beasts suddenly started appearing in larger numbers, but I just assumed that they were attracted to my power. I was already masterful with the scythe, or Burial Blade, as I soon found out it was called. The slaughter did start to get tedious after awhile, though, so I decided to finally head back to the Dream so I could let Doll power me up some more with the countless blood echoes I had accumulated. I fished out a bold hunter's mark from my pocket and focused on it and awoke inside of the Dream.

"Strange" I mutter "I usually awake next to one of the lamps" I look around and saw that everything was normal. I walked up to Doll and ask about powering up. She obliged and focused the echoes into my soul.

"What will it be this time, Hunter?" She asks.

"That scythe tires me out after a few swings, so I could use a boost to my endurance" I responded.

"Very well." I feel the power coursing through me and suddenly felt like I could sprint laps around the whole of Yharnam.

"Thank you, Doll."

"No problem, good Hunter. It's my job here, after all." She responded with the closest thing she could make to a smile.

I started walking away when the Doll called for me again. I turned around to face her and tilted my head to the right, silently asking her 'what?'

"A new tombstone appeared on the path today. I don't know where it leads, but it definitely leads somewhere, I can tell by the amount of messengers crowding around it's base. I would suggest that you check it out and see where it leads."

"Alright, it could lead to a previously closed off part of Yharnam that we haven't been able to get to." I doubted what I had said, but there was still the possibility.

"And Hunter, the new set of armor you asked the messengers to craft for you is ready." I smiled as she said this. I could finally get out of the undersized and torn gear that I had been wearing for the past week.

I walked up to the bath messengers and asked for my new gear. They happily obliged and gave it to me. It had the same look as my Yahar'gul set, but with some small differences. Most notably that the metal faceplate was removed in favor of a scarf, like the one on my standard Hunter set. I wanted to look like a demon, to terrify any enemy. I happily undressed right there and put the new gear on. It fit perfectly on my slim yet tall form.

"Alright Doll, it would seem that I am ready to head out. Wish me luck, wherever I go." I said with a tone of excitement in my voice. I could almost taste the blood that would soon soak my new cloak.

I walked up to the tombstone and gently brushed my fingers across it, willing myself to teleport to the one place listed on the tombstone; Emerald Forest.

…..

I woke up slowly, taking a second to remember where I was. After a minute or two I slowly pushed myself up and opened my eyes. I was surrounded by green. On the ground, in the trees, everywhere. I hadn't seen that much since I had arrived in Yharnam. The thing that stood out the most though, was the fact that it was daytime. I hadn't seen the sun in what felt like years, the closest I got was gazing upon the Blood Moon.

"Amazing" I whispered under my breath. The sun was almost a forgotten memory by this point. I was drawn out of my stupor when I noticed glowing red eyes appear in the bushes around me. I smirked a bit under my scarf and pulled out my Burial Blade, immediately putting it into scythe mode, and prepared to fight the beasts. I could sense many of them surrounding me, trying to turn me into their next meal. There were at least 20 of them, if not more.

The moment I saw one of them charge at me was when I made my move. I waited until the beast was almost upon me and dodged its charge, swiping down with my scythe as I did so. It was almost immediately cut in two, and dissolved a few seconds later. The rest seemed to hesitate for a moment before charging out as a mass. I dodged one and decapitated it, swinging my scythe back around me and into the back of a second beast.

"This is almost fair." I said, with mirth in my voice.

…..

Elsewhere, a middle aged man sitting at his desk observed this strange man fight a very large pack of Grimm from a hidden camera in the Emerald Forest. It intrigued him, seeing how this man appeared out of nowhere, just suddenly fading in accompanied by a bright flash of light.

"Interesting… I may have to send a team of Huntsman out to find this man, see what he wants." He said with a calm voice and continued watching the carnage with a keen interest.

…..

The slaughter was done. At least 20 lay dead in the clearing, dissolving into nothing after a few seconds, with several others fleeing for their lives. It all took less than 3 minutes.

"Strange, beasts of the Scourge don't usually flee from me, but I'm in a new area, anything is possible." I said. Strange, I didn't feel the bloodlust that I usually feel right after a battle, probably because all of the blood that the beasts spilt dissolved after a few seconds. I looked around again, trying to find a direction to go. I could see no clear path, so I decided to just head in a random direction until I found something of interest.

I walked for several hours and was slightly dismayed at not finding anything. How far had I gone? I was not used to being in such an open space, traveling through Yharnam for such a long time. I decided to make camp in some random tree in the forest when night fell. It seemed tall and sturdy enough to hide me from any other beasts that may wander by. An easy way I could go into the Hunter's Dream, as I found out, was to go to sleep. I wouldn't be able to buy anything there, but that wasn't what I needed to do, anyways. I carved a small arrow into the tree to point out what direction I had been going in, and slowly started climbing the tree.

I quickly drifted off to sleep after I sat with a branch in between my legs to hold me up while I slept. I opened my eyes and found myself in the usual spot where I would wake up in the Dream. I walked toward the Doll and spoke up.

"Hello there, Doll" I said with a small smile on my face, "Could you power me up a bit while I'm sleeping?"

"No problem, good Hunter" she responded, "What is it you need?"

"I need my reflexes and general dexterity boosted. My acrobatics were off during that fight."

She didn't respond, just kneeled down, closed her eyes, and channeled the power of the blood echoes into my soul, making me feel instantly more powerful.

"Thank you, but I must wake soon. It is almost morning, wherever I am."

"Then wake up peacefully, Hunter, and may you find respite in the waking world."

I woke up quickly with the morning sun shining in my eyes. I slowly opened them and saw the sunrise in the distance. It was one of the sights that I missed from my previous life, or whatever I could remember of it, anyways. I quickly climbed down the tree and started walking in that same path as last night by following the arrow I left in the tree. It took another few hours to find anything, but when I did I was pleasantly surprised. I saw some sort of old amphitheater with small pedestals inside of it.

"Well at least something used to live in this area. I was getting worried that I was just wasting my time here, looking for some sort of civilization in vain." I muttered to myself. I decided to rest here for the time being, if only so I could train and test out my new levels of dexterity.

I walked up to a random tree at the edge of the clearing and sound at it with my scythe to test the trees durability. To none of my surprise, however, the scythe chopped through the wood like it would through flesh. It was really not its fault, though, as the scythe could chop through almost anything with a clean cut. I probably would never find out how the blade was forged to give it this level of cutting power and durability.

Since I couldn't really do anything with relation to hitting wood with my scythe I decided to to the next best thing, practice my combat dodges, acrobatics, and speed while holding my scythe in its full form. I got a good two hours of practice in before I heard something in the distance. It sounded like talking.

I was surprised that others would be near me when not three hours before I was losing hope that anything that wasn't a beast lived in the area. I quickly climbed up a large tree and tried to get above whoever was walking through the forest. I could make out at least three different voices, two male, one female, and was within viewing distance of them.

They were dressed in some sort of white combat suit with a strange symbol of a red beast head and three claw marks behind it on their backs. They also wore masks over their eyes, probably trying to hide themselves from someone or something. This already put me on edge, but their conversation below me made my blood boil.

"C'mon, we're too close to Beacon, we need to get farther out into the forest before we can contact base." One of them, the female, said to the others. "We can't be found and captured."

"I know!" One of the men yelled in a loud whisper. "If were found carrying even one of these stolen dust bombs we would be thrown in prison from life!" I glared down at them from the top of the trees, but kept quiet, to see if they would say anything else.

"I know we're planning on detonating these somewhere in one of the cities, so why do we have to leave the area? Why not just do it instantly? The other man said, looking at the female that apparently led them.

"Because the police will be on alert for some time, and so will the civilians. Once the heat dies down we can take our revenge."

At this point I knew they deserved death, voluntarily killing civilians was on par with the beasts and the mad hunters. I silently dropped down behind them, and slowly crept up to them. None of them noticed me, as they were to busy discussing their plans. Suddenly one of the men turned around and saw me.

"What are you doing there!" He yelled at me, pointing his rifle at me. The other two immediately turned around at the commotion and pointed their rifles at me, too. I kept my head down and my weapon sheathed.

"I said what are you doing! If you don't talk I will kill you!" He yelled at me. I grinned a bit under my scarf and looked up.

"I haven't tasted blood in days. Thank you for supplementing me in my time of need." I pulled out my scythe and angled it toward them. "Now prepare to die." And then the massacre started. With amazing speed I swiftly bisected one at the hip. Strange, I felt some kind of resistance for a second before I cut through him.

The other two looked at their fallen comrade in horror, the remaining male almost vomiting at the sight of his former teammates body cut in two. I quickly got behind the female while she was distracted. They looked back up and saw that I was gone. I smirked, and stabbed the female in the back with the blade, piercing her heart and killing her almost instantly. The remaining male looked ready to piss himself, and I laughed an evil laugh.

He immediately dropped his rifle and attempted to run away from me, but I was to fast. He barely got 3 feet before two knifes imbedded themselves in his back. He was surprisingly still alive. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack while looking at my imposing figure stalk toward him, scythe pointing down at the ground.

"Mercy! Please! I have a wife and two kids! They won't be able to survive without me!" He was practically begging at this point. I looked down at him and said one word that shattered his hopes.

"No." I put my scythe away, picked him up by the collar of his shirt, reared my right hand back, and violently shoved my hand through his chest, tearing out his heart and crushing it in my fist. I dropped the body to the ground and walked away, back to the old amphitheater in the woods.

"Pathetic." I told myself. "Those excuses for human beings were not worth the blood in their veins. I almost feel disgusted to be coated in such weak blood." I growled out.

…..

"Oh my…" The middle aged man said in a hushed tone. He didn't think that the mysterious man would kill those White Fang members in such a brutal fashion. He expected him to knock them all out and take them to the Vale PD, not murder them. He pressed down on the intercom button on his desk to talk to his assistant downstairs.

"Glynda, could you please bring me Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck? I also need you to come up with them. This is very important, I don't care if the if the Professor and Doctor have to cut their classes short. I need them now."

"Ummm… Okay Ozpin. What has you so on edge?" Glynda replied almost instantly. It was very unlike Headmaster Ozpin to act nervous at all. It was only the first day of classes.

"I'll explain when everyone else is here, just hurry, please." Ozpin responded.

"Got it, they'll be up in 10 minutes."

…..


	2. Chapter 2

The greens of the forest melded into a singular color as the bloodlust still fueled my brain. It was a problem that I had, bloodlust would overcome me whenever blood soaked my body, it would be all that I could think about. I knew that I would have to get it under control if I was to ever adapt into something other than the hunt, but that day would be far off in the future.

"Now where was that ruin that I had been practicing in?" I asked myself as the unyielding bloodlust finally wore off. "I know it has to be around here somewhere, I didn't move too far from it."

After a few more minutes of searching I found it, looking like nothing had happened to it while I was gone. I decided to walk to the center of it, just to see what was there. To my surprise a lamp appeared when I walked up to the amphitheater.

"Strange, this has never happened before." I muttered. I walked up to the lamp and lit it, just like I had done many times before. The lamp lit normally and I decided to head back to the Dream, if only to just to know what this location was called. I touched the lamp and the world faded around me, signaling that I had entered the Dream.

Something seemed off as I walked up the path to greet the Doll. She held a somewhat worried expression on her face.

"Hunter, something has happened." She said to me as soon as she had spotted me.

"What is it?" I responded almost immediately. Doll didn't usually worry about anything, so it surprised me that something had.

"The multiple tombstones to Yharnam are blank. I do not know how it happened, but it would seem that the Hunt has finally ended."

I was shocked at this revelation, not knowing what to do. Yharnam had been my home for as long as I had remembered. I knew that I wouldn't be able to go back after looking at the various tombstones myself. They were completely blank, not even a scratch on any of them. I looked at all of the tombstones on the path, and even Yahar'gul had disappeared. The only tombstone with anything on it was the one leading to the forest and the 'Abandoned Temple', as it was now called.

"What does this mean?" I asked the Doll with worry in my voice.

"It would appear that you are no longer needed in Yharnam, but in whatever that new place is." She responded.

I looked at the tombstone, which now had the word 'Remnant' carved into the top of the headstone in fancier text that the rest. I guess that is what the place is called. I would need to ask locals where it was in relation to Yharnam, if they even knew. The people of Yharnam hated outsiders, and non-locals hated its citizens and thought them crazy for their obsession with blood, all thanks to the 'Healing' Church.

I looked up to the new tombstone and gently caressed it, willing myself to go to this abandoned temple.

* * *

The various teachers looked shocked by the footage that Ozpin had shown them of the mysterious man slaughtering the White Fang members in cold blood. None of them could believe what they had seen, but the evidence was there.

"This is why I called you up here, professors. We need to find this man and see if he will be a danger to us. He has clearly demonstrated that he is willing and able to kill." Ozpin said with a grim tone. "He must be brought in and questioned at any cost."

"This seems very dangerous, Ozpin. Are you sure that us four will be able to handle him with no backup?" Professor Port asked with a genuine tone of worry in his voice.

"Yes, I'm sure we'll be able to take him out, whether it be through peaceful or… less appealing means. I would prefer diplomacy over anything else, though" Ozpin responded slowly. The three other professors nodded in agreement and swiftly departed the headmaster's office and to the bullhead landing pads, readying themselves for whatever could happen with the stranger.

* * *

I decided to rest at the temple for some time after I got back, if only to let the rest of the bloodlust cool off. It was a very peaceful place, the exact opposite of Yharnam during my stay there. I couldn't remember why I had came to Yharnam in the first place, just some vague memories of some sort of disease that I had and needed cured by the 'magic' of Yharnamite blood. It seemed foolish that people used to believe in the Healing Churches "miracles" that could cure anything. All that they did was create the beasts that I loathed.

My thoughts were cut short, however, as I heard some sort of commotion in the sky above me. It sounded like thunder, but quieter and more constant. I looked up and saw a large metal beast hovering in the air above me. I quickly stood up and drew my scythe, preparing for a battle.

What I did not expect, however, was for the sides of the beast to open and have four figures jump out of it. They all looked older, and definitely combat ready. One of them, the shortest of the four, wielded some sort of blunderbuss. He looked determined and ready for combat, even more than the others. Another, the only female of the group, wielded some sort of wand. It didn't look threatening, but most would say the same thing about the threaded cane that I once wielded. The third one carried some sort of spear-like contraption with a small flame on the end of it. He looked very disheveled, but ready to fight.

The final one carried an air of authority about him, and seemed very dignified. He looked like the leader of the group, with the other three behind him and probably awaiting orders. He held a cane, but I could easily tell that it was also some sort of weapon by the way he held it, relaxed but ready for combat. I readied my scythe in preparation of them attacking me, but was surprised when the leader of the group didn't order a charge, but started talking.

"Put down your weapon, sir, we mean you no harm unless you have hostile intent." He stated in a calm, yet author active voice. I slowly lowered my weapon, where it was no longer being brandished, but still ready for combat if the situation arose.

"Who are you and what do you want?" I asked bluntly. "It does not seem that you have come in peace, with the various weapons that you brought with you." I was very suspicious of them for many reasons, one of them being that they came so soon after I slaughtered the murderous beasts.

"We just want to talk, and we brought these weapons in case you attacked us, like you did with those White Fang members." I looked at him in confusion for a second, not knowing how he saw me do that. It seemed that he had read my mind, and responded to my previous thought. "I have cameras placed around most of the forest, and I know everything that goes on here. They would've been captured by the police if you hadn't slaughtered them like you did."

I had no clue what a 'camera' was, but I assumed that it was used to see where one's eyes could not. I did not feel bad knowing that they could've been saved, though. Their crimes couldn't have gone unpunished. Beasts like them willing to slaughter innocents didn't deserve to live. They all probably noticed how my face slightly contorted into a disapproving look.

"They were willing to slaughter innocents for their goals. I wouldn't have let them live either way." I calmly stated. One of them, the female, gave me a glare at my clear lack of empathy for others. It wasn't my problem that she disagreed with my methods.

"But the fact remains that you killed them, no matter what they did they did. They deserved to rot in prison and be executed for their conspiracy, yes, but he fact remains that you killed them in cold blood and denied them any sort of trial. I can't have a man with a clear lack of empathy and murderous intent roam around the Kingdom of Vale." I was ready to fight back if he were to attack.

"Then kill me. I am ready to fight, should I need to." I slowly started lifting my scythe, but the man held his hand out, not even attempting to raise his weapon.

"Calm down, I do not wish to fight." He said. I lowered my weapon and let him continue. "I can't let you roam freely, but under my watch you could stay. May I ask how old you are?"

I was a bit surprised at his question, but responded honestly. "I am of 16 years of age. Why do you ask?" I looked back at the others, who were all looking at me with looks ranging from surprise to empathy written on their features, all except for their leader.

"16 you say? That's a bit young, but it could suffice." He glanced at me for a second before looking back at his companions. The female looked back at him and spoke.

"Ozpin, you cannot be serious. He is dangerous, do you know what could happen if we brought him into…" She was cut off by the man, now known as Ozpin.

"I am serious, Glynda. He shows promise, and I would easily be able to watch him and make sure he doesn't cause any trouble." I had no idea what they were talking about, I hadn't even agreed to anything yet.

"If you may excuse me, what are you talking about? I haven't agreed to anything yet." They both looked at me before Ozpin continued speaking.

"What I propose is that you attend my academy as a student so I can keep an eye on you." I looked at him with surprise written all over my face.

"Academy? I have no need for any sort of education, Ozpin" I flat out refused his offer. I had little memory of anything before my time in Yharnam, so I would not even be able to remember most subjects.

"You misunderstand, it's no normal school. My school is a combat school, used to train the next generation of huntsman and huntresses to combat the creatures of grimm." I was surprised when he said huntsman, and came to the conclusion that The Scourge somehow existed here.

"Well now you intrigue me, Ozpin. I am known as a Hunter from where I come from. Tell me, have you ever heard of The Scourge? Or of Ashen Blood?" I asked him with a serious look on my face.

"No, I am afraid I haven't. What are they, if I may ask?" He responded. I frowned a bit under my scarf after realizing that these people probably hadn't heard of Yharnam, then.

"Nevermind, then. I will accept your offer then. I will see what your… academy teaches your students." The three behind Ozpin seemed to relax at this statement, marking me as non-hostile.

"Excellent. May I ask your name?" Ozpin asked after a short pause.

"My name is Alexander, Hunter of Hunters." I responded with a slight blow of my head.

"What does your title mean, if I may interrupt?" The portly man in the back asked. I was surprised that he had talked.

"I hunt down rogue Hunters that have lost themselves to the beast inside of them." I responded swiftly. Ozpin lifted an eyebrow at my answer, but kept silent. I looked around and saw that all of them looked as if they had a question.

"What does that mean? The beast part, that is." The female, Glynda, asked.

"Hunters will usually feel an unyielding bloodlust during combat. Most of us can keep that feeling contained, but a few let it drive them, consume them from the inside. That is when they go feral. Hunter's always become the worst of the beasts. It is my duty to kill them before they go and kill innocents." They all looked at me with a bit of fear, dread, and anger before Ozpin diffused the tension.

"Well it seems that this has been informative, but we must get back to Beacon before people start to worry. Please, everyone, but your weapons away and we can head back." Everyone obliged and sheathed their weapons, including me. Ozpin lead us to a large clearing only about a mile away and called one of those flying contraptions to our location. I still had no idea what it was and asked. Apparently it was called a 'bullhead' and would fly us to the school, Beacon, as I learned it was called.

The flight to the academy only took about 10 minutes in total. I was in awe at the city before me. The walls that surrounded that place were very tall, and the architecture was beautiful. It didn't have a gothic look like Yharnam did, but had more of a look the surrounding towns and cities had, with flatter and less angular architecture.

"This is the Kingdom of Vale, one of the four centers of human civilization left in this world." Ozpin said, clearly seeing the look of wonder I my eyes. "Now could you pull down that scarf and take off that hood? You would look less like a criminal that way." I slightly chuckled at the last part.

I did as he asked and removed my face wear. The professors had no idea what I looked like under my gear and were probably wondering if I looked normal at all. They were probably surprised when they looked at my face. They expected to see a strong, hardened face and only saw a very pale and gaunt looking teen.

"Surprised?" I chuckled "I'm probably not what you were expecting to see. A pale, weak looking teen with mismatched eyes." They just kept quiet and stared at me. I flashed them a grin and stared back at the academy. It was the middle of the day outside when we got to the academy. I could see some people around campus in, what I assumed, were school uniforms.

The bullhead landed on one of the platforms and we disembarked. Some nearby students looked at their teachers disembark with a look of puzzlement. There were probably many thoughts going through their head, but they all kept quiet.

"Right now the students can do whatever they'd like, but their curfew is in about an hour. Students can do whatever they want as long as it's on campus for the rest of the day, but they must be back in their dorms by 10 ppm." Ozpin informed me. I listened to him with interest, mainly because I would have to adapt to this schedule.

"What time are the classes at, Ozpin?" I asked. I would have to know this stuff for tomorrow, so I might as well ask now.

"Students have their first period at nine in the morning, with their second class at 10. After that they have an hour of lunch and two hours of free time. After that they have another class and then the day is over. Dinner is served at seven in the evening. Breakfast is served at eight in the morning." He responded with practiced efficiency, likely having delivered the speech many times before.

"Thank you, I will make sure to be on time to my classes tomorrow. I am starting tomorrow, right?" I asked.

"If you want to, yes, you can. We do need to get you a dorm to be able to sleep in. We won't be able to open up a room for you for at least a week, so you will have to stay with one of the first year teams."

"It is fine. I am not good in social situations, but I can handle."

Ozpin just nodded and continued leading me through the school. He let the other teachers go back to their classes and prepare for tomorrow's classes. He gave me a tour of the school and showed me the classes that I would attend tomorrow. Students gave me weird looks, but that was probably from either my armor or weapon. I could hear a few people muttering something, but I couldn't understand most of what they said.

I felt out of place, wearing my old and worn out looking armor while everyone else was wearing nice looking suits and dresses. Ozpin seemed to notice my discomfort and assured me that I would get a few suits, all students had to get at least three sets of the uniform.

I was eventually led down a hallway with two doors on either side of it, one had the letters JNPR while the other had RWBY on it.

"What do those letters mean? I have not seen any other rooms like that." I asked Ozpin. He looked back at me before answering.

"These are the students dorm rooms. You will be staying in team JNPR's dorm for the time being while I can organize a room for you to stay in." He answered. It seemed like a simple enough arrangement.

Ozpin knocked on the door and we waited a few seconds. We heard some commotion and hushed shouting in the room. I had no idea what was going on, but I assumed that two students were having intercourse before they went to bed. It wouldn't be the first time I had heard of that happening, though I struggled to remember exactly _where_ I had heard it from. After a few more seconds of silence the door finally opened. The teen that opened the door looked very scraggly and a bit worn out until he saw Ozpin. The boy looked terrified, as if he was hiding something and thought that Ozpin had found him out.

"Mr. Arc, you are not in trouble, if that's what you're thinking. It's only the first day of classes" The boy almost visibly signed, and I saw a phantom of a grin tugging at Ozpin's lips. "I simply have something to ask of you and your team." The boy looked at Ozpin with a puzzled expression for a moment before responding.

"What would that be headmaster?" It would seem that he hadn't noticed me behind Ozpin.

Ozpin just stared at him for a few seconds before motioning behind himself. It took a moment for the boy to understand what his headmaster meant, but it finally dawned on him to look behind Ozpin. The boy looked slightly terrified at my intimidating presence. I looked down at him with a slightly disapproving stare at his lack of awareness. He would have died in Yharnam in less than an hour with those observational skills.

"Hello… s-sir. I'm J-Jaune Arc" The boy, Jaune, stuttered out. "H-How are you t-today?" Pathetic. He was a miserable excuse for what a warrior should act like at the supposed 'most prestigious combat school in Remnant'. If this was what the students acted like than it would be better to slaughter them all rather then let them continue their mis-

I cut off my own thoughts, not willing to let the bloodlust unleash itself in such a public place. I needed to stay calm here, if only for the sake of innocents. I was the Hunter of Hunters, God dammit, I needed to stay calm.

"I am doing fine, Mr. Arc." I responded cooly. "You seem flustered. Do I intimidate you?" It was a stupid question to ask, already knowing the answer. A torn up and used looking black cloak and what looked like Human bones on my back certainly did not help matters. I had based my entire look on intimidation and fear, after all.

"Y-Yes you do intimidate me sir!" I was surprised that he was so honest with me. I expected at least one bad lie.

"At least you are honest. I don't like being called sir, either, I am only 16 years of age." He looked very surprised at my age. He was probably thinking I was a new teacher or something.

"Wait, you're 16? That means I'm older than you!" He practically shouted. "I'm 17. You're so tall though…" He looked up at me. He was at least 6'1" but I was still at least 6 inches taller than him.

"Would your team be comfortable hosting Alexander for the time being? That is the reason we came here, after all. He will only have to stay with you for a week at most until we can get him his own room."

"That's fine with me, headmaster!" Jaune responded. I was expecting him to reject, seeing of how he seemed to be terrified of me, but I was not going to reject hospitality. I did want to meet his team, though, if only to see how they were like.

"Good. Now I'll just leave you to whatever you need to do to get settled in, Alexander. I'll speak to to you tomorrow in the beginning of the day about your initiation. You won't be getting any preferential treatment just because of why I invited you here, you will still need to partake in the initiation just like all of the other students have." I understood his reasoning, knowing that I had to prove myself to be just as capable as the other students.

"Goodbye then, Ozpin. I will see you tomorrow." I said. He waved at me a little before walking off down the hall, presumably toward his office. I looked over at Jaune. "May I come in?" I asked. He nodded his head and opened the door, allowing me to see the dorm room his team used. It wasn't the smallest or biggest bedroom that I had ever seen. It was a good size, decently fitting four people. It seemed cozy, but there was only room for four beds.

"Sorry that there's not a bed for you to use, but we weren't expecting another person to be with our team. I can bring in a portable cot or something, though." Jaune said with a somewhat guilty tone to his voice.

"Don't worry, I don't need a bed. I've slept on the ground for long enough that I can't sleep on a soft surface anymore." I responded. It was only half true, I didn't technically need to sleep, but I did want to visit the Dream sometimes when I didn't have access to a lamp. Sleeping was also a pretty good way to pass time when I had nothing else to do as well, so that was a plus.

"Are you sure? It would be pretty easy to-" I cut him off before he could finish his sentence.

"Yes, it is fine. May I meet your team, Jaune? I will be staying with them for the foreseeable future, so it would be wise to meet them as soon as possible." He looked at me weird for a second before remembering that I still had to meet his team. He muttered something under his breath that I couldn't understand before letting me into the dorm.

I saw a girl sitting on one of the beds, looking towards the door at Jaune and I. So my assumptions were probably right. She was clothed, though, but she could've changed while I was being introduced.

"That is Pyrrha Nikos, my teammate and partner." Jaune said, probably seeing that I was looking at her. She bashfully waved toward me, somewhat nervous looking. She had deep red hair and was wearing something that looked like very light combat armor. It didn't look very practical, but I let it slide, thinking that it may have just been casual clothes with added protection. "The other two members of team JNPR aren't here right now, but I'll introduce them to you when they get back." I could accept that, they were probably in some sort of training room, it was a combat school, after all.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Pyrrha. My name is Alexander." I said politely with a slight nod of my head. She looked at me and seemed to blush a bit before responding.

"Hello, Alexander. I hope we can have a productive relationship." She said

"As do I, Ms. Nikos" I responded politely. She smiled a bit and went back to doing whatever she was doing before I entered.

"If you want you can sleep over there," Jaune pointed to an empty space on the wall next to the closet, "Nobody keeps anything over there anyways. It would be perfect." I thought so as well. It was small and out of the way, exactly what I had been used to.

I walked over to the spot and sat down, letting myself get used to the area for a bit before looking back up. Jaune was looking at me with a puzzled expression. I looked back at him and explained what I was doing.

"I was just making sure that the floor wouldn't break under my weight or something, had to make sure it was sturdy." He understood and sat down on his bed, pulling out some sort of sword from a sheath. It looked somewhat basic to all of the other weapons that I had seen today, but he probably just had a love for the classics, and I could respect that.

The room descended into awkward silence for a few minutes while nothing happened Pyrrha was reading a book, Jaune was polishing a sword, and I was just staring at them, waiting for something to happen. It took several minutes of awkward silence until something happened. One moment I was eyeing the two people in the room, the next moment my vision was enveloped by a female's face. I almost shouted in astonishment before she started talking.

"Who's this Jaunie? Is he a spy? Do I need to break his legs?" She practically yelled. I was puzzled, she seemed a bit… unhinged.

"Nora, calm yourself, Jaune will explain who this man is." I noticed that this other man in the room seemed very calm, almost serenely so. The two people both looked over at Jaune for an explanation. Jaune looked nervous for a second before responding.

"Ren, Nora, this is Alexander, he will be staying with us for about a week until he gets his own room." They both looked back at me before the orange haired girl, Nora,started talking again.

"Okay! My name is Nora Valkyrie! Nice to meet you, Alex!" I was a bit irked at how she messed up my name, but just accepted that she was messing with me. Before I knew it she had raced off to her bed and started jumping up and down on it.

"I apologize for her behavior, my name is Lie Ren, pleased to meet you." He held out his hand to me and I stood up and shook it.

"Alexander, Hunter of Hunters." I responded. He looked at me with a somewhat puzzled expression on his face, likely confused to what my title meant. I was about to start explaining what it meant, but he apparently dropped the subject and walked of to his bed and sat down. I shrugged a bit and slid back down onto the floor. It was dark out and I assumed that everyone would be going to sleep soon. I decided to just sit in the same spot for the rest of the night and observe the sleeping forms of my temporary teammates before drifting off to sleep to enter the Dream.

* * *

Jaune was scared, more so than he would usually be in a situation like this. He had went to sleep, just like any normal night. The difference, though, was that he somehow woke up in a completely different place than he went to sleep. He had woken on some sort of path in front of a large house. Tombstones littered the area with the names of many people engraved on each one. It unnerved him to see the names of so many presumably dead people. Jaune never really liked graveyards, and being surrounded by a giant one made him nervous.

"Where am I?" He asked to nobody in particular. He didn't expect anybody to answer him, but a voice he knew answered him back.

"It would appear that you have entered the Hunter's Dream, Jaune. I am very surprised at this." Jaune looked back and saw me in my normal attire. "Now how would've this happened, I wonder?" Jaune just looked at me in disbelief for a second before shouting angrily at me.

"What do you mean dream? This feels real enough! Where have you taken me?" He shouted.

"I have taken you nowhere. Your body is still resting peacefully in bed, but your consciousness is currently in the Dream. I don't know why or how, but you have apparently become a Hunter, like me." I responded. He looked at me in disbelief. "If you doubt me you can wake yourself up right now, but you will always be connected."

Jaune suddenly disappeared. I grinned a bit before waking myself up, hoping to stop his reaction before he woke everyone else up.

* * *

 **A/N: And that is that. Jaune is now going to be a Hunter. I'm writing this as I go and have no idea what I'll do until I actually start writing. I do have some goals, but they're pretty vague. I was gonna put Alexander with RWBY, but that's overdone and I wanted to try something new. I had to rewrite parts of this chapter multiple times to get a flow that I was happy with.**

 **I know that it may be written somewhat poorly, but this is the first thing I have ever written that wasn't for school. When I get better I'll probably come back and rewrite some of the earlier chapters.**

 **Until next time, Darkness signing off.**


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up to see Jaune already sitting up in his bed, covered in a cold sweat. He was rapidly looking around, probably trying to remember where he was. I chuckled at his experience, and he looked over to me. I just looked at him in the eye and nodded.

"Was that… real? You were talking to me about a dream and being a 'Hunter' or something like that." He looked upon me fearfully. I just nodded my head. "How does that work, though? Sharing dreams is impossible!" He was starting to get hysterical. I put my finger over my lips and made a shushing motion while gesturing at his three teammates. He understood what I meant and started trying to calm himself.

"I have no idea how the Dream functions, only that I have been there countless times. It is my home. I can teach you more about it if you fall back asleep right now, so we can talk in private." I looked at him with a hopeful stare, but he shook his head.

"I can't go back there, I need to stay normal, I don't want be be like YOU!" He practically shouted. It seemed that one of his teammates started waking up, but I couldn't see which of the three it was.

"Whether you like it or not, Jaune, you are connected to the dream, there is no way to get you out of it." I lied. He could get out, but I would need to ritualistically kill him. Too bad I didn't know a word of said ritual. He looked at me with even more fear. I faintly heard him muttering 'no' under his breath. This boy was genuinely terrified of what had happened to him. I had to give him time to come to terms with it. A terrifying thought suddenly popped up in my head that I had to check.

"Jaune I need a blood sample. Now!" I demanded with a tone of fear in my voice. He looked at me with a puzzled expression before shaking his head _no_. I wasn't going to take that for an answer. "Jaune, if you don't let me do this the entirety of Beacon can and will die!" He looked at me in fear before putting his hand out. I stood up and walked over to him before placing my hand on his. He looked puzzled for a second before seeing me pull out one of my non-poisoned throwing knives.

I quickly slashed a small cut on the palm of his hand and angled it so it would drip blood into my hand. I saw him wince in pain but I ignored it, the safety of civilians was more important than anything right now. I had gotten a good puddle of blood on my hand before stopping. I examined the blood and put a bit into my mouth. I would be immune to any form of the Scourge or Ashen Blood, as all Hunters are infected to some extent. He looked at me weirdly as I put the blood into my mouth. I couldn't find any trace of either Ashen Blood or of the Scourge, strange, I would've expected at least a trace of either one of them.

I looked back up at him and nodded my head. "You are clean and your blood is pure. You are of no danger to anybody here." He looked up at me with relief written all over his face, but still seemed puzzled.

"What did you do to me? Why drink my blood?" He asked, "And what do you mean by 'pure'?" He was genuinely puzzled, but that would be expected. I had suddenly cut open his hand and drank his blood, which was probably not normal here.

"I was checking to see if you were infected. Most hunters are, even me" I responded.

"Infected with what? Last time I went to the doctor I was fine, and that was last week."

I sighed and responded. "I was checking for the Scourge of Beasts or Ashen Blood, both of which most Hunters are infected with. It seems, though, that you are a very rare exception. Either that or the disease just hasn't manifested itself yet. Either way you are a very rare case, Jaune." He looked at me with a hint of skepticism in his eye, but apparently went with it.

"What does this… Scourge do to people, exactly?" Jaune asked. It was a good question to ask, surprisingly enough.

"The Scourge of Beasts… changes people in the most sickening of ways. Your arms will start growing long and gangly. Excess hair will start growing all over your body. Victims slowly lose their minds until they are just shells of men with the mind of a beast. After some time you will completely transform into one of the true beasts, with a completely unyielding bloodlust and an appetite for human flesh." Jaune looked at me horrified, but also with a look of suspicion.

"That just sounds like one of those old werewolf legends. I can't believe that one bit." He looked at me a bit smugly, "Show me proof and I'll believe you!" He sounded so confident that I almost laughed. He would get killed way more than necessary with that kind of disbelieving attitude.

"I will show you in the Dream then, Jaune. Quickly fall asleep, it will be easier than normal to fall asleep now that you are connected." I gave him a disapproving look. "If you don't show up I will rip your arms off and beat you to death with them." I was dead serious and he knew it well.

I walked off back to my corner and sat down. Willing myself to sleep took no time and I quickly found myself in the Dream, with Jaune appearing a few seconds later. I looked over at him and smiled a feral grin, relishing myself in the fear I felt radiating off of him. I led him to the central building at the top of the path. It took me a minute to find what I was looking for, but I eventually found the book that I had added to the library. It had detailed sketches, diagrams, information, and most important in this case, photographs of the beasts. It took hours to get the proper photos, as I had to wait some time for it to take and the beasts couldn't see me while I was setting up.

He stared at the photographs in disbelief, not really believing any of them until he came to the one of me posing with the severed heads of two separate wolf beasts. He still didn't look totally convinced, but he had definitely been put on the right track, a more open minded one, at least.

"Where were these all taken? The area is unlike any I've ever seen!" Jaune shouted out. I wasn't surprised that he hadn't seen any of Yharnamite architecture, as it was very unique.

"Most of them were taken inside the city of Yharnam during the Hunt. You do not need to know what the Hunt is right now, as we are getting short on time." I pointed out of the open door and at the rising sun. "Time here moves very fast when you are dreaming, several minutes in here could mean hours outside the dream. I would estimate it to be six in the morning right now." Before he could respond I woke myself up and disappeared from the Dream.

My eyes slowly opened as I woke up and saw that my estimates were right. The Sun was just starting to rise over the horizon. Jaune woke up less than a minute later than I had looking mildly refreshed. I still hadn't told him that he would never need to sleep again, but I did not want to freak him out even more than he was already. He was already taking it hard enough as it was.

"How do you like your new life, Jaune?" I was genuinely curious. I was as surprised as he was when I saw him in the Dream, but I handled it much better. After all, it had happened to me. I was internally debating with myself whether to tell him that he was completely and totally immoral or just wait for him to get killed. It was either help him out or make him think he was going to be killed, just like I had when I tried leaving Iosefka's clinic. The answer was obvious, to me at least. I had to at least find a lamp for him to light so he could come back if he died. I had no idea what would happen if there were no lamps lit for him to travel to.

"It's… strange, I guess. I don't know if I should tell my teammates about it, though. I barely know any of them and don't want them to hate me or think I'm some sort of freak like you." He realized what he said a little too late. "No offense." He said quickly, trying to not make me angry at him. I laughed internally at his total lack of competence in what he said, though kept my face expressionless.

"It's fine, Jaune. I don't kill people for no reason. I am going to clean myself. I have not bathed for weeks and am in need of it." I stood up and walked toward the restroom before closing the door and locking it.

I slowly took off my cloak, multiple hidden weapon harnesses, and layers of light armor underneath everything else. There was a mirror in the restroom and I looked at myself for the first time in weeks. My hair was still short, but had grown scraggly and looked similar to Jaunes in a way. My beard hadn't grown much, either, surprisingly. I did look terrible, though. My skin had gone from a slight pale to an almost bone white that contrasted with my hair. My eyes still looked as vibrant as ever, with no hint of any sort of regret hidden behind them. It would terrify most people to know that I had held such little regret for the hundreds that I had slaughtered.

The worst part of my body were the scars, though. Every death I had ever experienced had given me some sort of mark. From a thin, faded line across my neck to a deep looking scar on my stomach from when I had been ran through with the claws of a beast. I did not know why no scars appeared on my face, though. It was very smooth and made it seem that I hadn't been in a single fight all my life to the casual observer. I hated it more than anything.

* * *

Pyrrha woke up feeling refreshed And ready for the new day ahead. She looked around the room and noticed that their guest and Jaune were both gone, but just assumed that Jaune was giving Alexander a tour of Beacon. She stepped out of her bed and stretched to loosen her muscles.

Pyrrha walked over to the bathroom to take a shower, brush her teeth, and generally freshen up for the day. She knew it would be at least another hour before anybody else would wake up, judging by how it went yesterday. She undressed herself outside of the bathroom, grabbed a towel and walked into the bathroom.

Instead of seeing an empty room in which to bathe Pyrrha saw an extremely pale young man in only his underwear that was absolutely covered in scars. It didn't help that he immediately noticed her standing in the doorway, naked as the day she was born. Pyrrha immediately covered herself with the towel she had brought in while the man just raised an eyebrow. He quickly picked up his gear on the floor before exiting and closing the door behind him.

* * *

That was… unexpected, to say the least. I had not expected anyone to wake up so early, as I had estimated it would take at least another hour before anybody besides me or Jaune would even consider waking up. I did not mind, per se, I was used to not having any sort of privacy while these people were more… civilized than I and probably expected to be able to get ready without anybody watching them. It was a novel idea, to say the least. Privacy was a luxury that I had never had during my time in Yharnam.

I donned all of my gear again before sitting back down in my normal spot so I could wait for Pyrrha to get out. I did need to apologize for not locking the door, but I hadn't thought of it after so much time without a luxury like that.

It took some time for her to finally exit the room, still looking somewhat shaken by her first real experience with me. I quickly stood up and walked toward her. She looked a bit fearful, but stood steadfast. She probably expected me to yell at her for walking in on me.

"Ms. Nikos," She braced herself to be yelled at. "I sincerely apologize for not locking the door and putting you in a compromising position like that." She seemed surprised at my apology. "I understand that you expected to be yelled at, but it was no fault of your own that I hadn't locked the door."

Pyrrha looked back at me, "No, I should be the one apologizing, I wasn't expecting to find anyone awake at this time in the morning and I suffered for that." She seemed genuinely apologetic and it completely mystified me. Wasn't I the one to blame for not properly locking the door?

Whatever. I had more important things to discuss Tan who's fault the restroom incident was. "Pyrrha, do you know where's Jaune went? He was here when I woke but I haven't seen him since. Was he here when you awoke?" I asked her.

"Jaune wasn't here, I thought he was giving you a tour of the school." She responded.

"No, he would not have done that. Ozpin gave me a tour of most of the campus yesterday when I first arrived at Beacon." I had a suspicion of where he went, but I couldn't confirm it. He was either hiding somewhere and sleeping so he could go back in the Dream or in the library trying to research anything he could about Yharnam after I had mentioned it but not elaborated on what it was. It was something that I needed to do, just to see if Yharnam was anywhere close.

I waved Pyrrha goodbye before heading out of the room and toward the library. I followed various signs throughout the facility to help me navigate until I found the library. Not many students were there, but that was normal at this time in the morning. It was a very large space with hundreds of books on the various shelves.

I looked through the history section for some time, looking for anything in relation to Yharnam or the Scourge. Nothing was there, even after looking for an hour through the entirety of the history section. I did not want to look through the fairytales or fictional stories, though. I needed facts to what had happened to my first hunting ground, not legends, if any existed at all.

After several more minutes of searching a voice came out of the walls, "Our new student, Alexander, please come to the Headmaster's office for initiation." I had no idea where it came from, but I knew it was talking about me. I sighed and left the library, following the various signs and directions throughout the building until I found Ozpin's office. It was a very tall building with no visible stairs. I had no idea how to traverse up the structure until the door opened and Ozpin walked out. There were no Isabel stairs inside, so I just chalked it up to some new form of technology.

"Ahh, Alexander, how are you this morning?"' He asked me. Ozpin seemed less cold today for some reason, probably because he would be able to properly see me in action.

"I am fine this morning, Ozpin. How are you?" I asked him.

"I'm doing fine, Alexander. Now do you know what we will be doing for your initiation today? Has Jaune or anybody in JNPR told you?"

"No, I do not. What will my initiation be? I know it will be combat related, judging by how this is a combat school." He just grinned a bit and shook his head.

"You're not wrong, but you will have to retrieve a relic from the abandoned temple that we found you at." He started walking toward some sort of path, and I followed. "The temple will take you a few hours to arrive at, but you do have a limit of five hours to complete everything, though, but I don't think you will have any problems."

"If it is at the temple it will take much less that five hours, if I do not make it back in three I am not worthy of the gifts that I have received." He looked at me with a puzzled expression before apparently giving it up, chalking it up to something that he knew. I would have to ask him if he knew anything about Yharnam.

It took some time for us to reach a cliff side. I saw several stone tablets lined up single file along the cliff's edge. They all looked fairly simple, but I had no idea what they would do.

"What are those for, Ozpin?" I asked "They look very plain and simply useless, but I know looks can be deceiving."

He just smiled a bit. "Yes, these will fling you into the air toward the temple in the south, shortening the length of the trip." I understood what it did pretty well, but I didn't need to use it.

"I have no need of your tablets Ozpin, but thank you for the offer." Before he could respond or even question what I meant I focused on the Hunter's mark in my head and started disappearing before his eyes. He looked at me in horror before I disappeared and reappeared in the center of the temple. I quickly flipped up my hood, pulled up my scarf, and looked around the temple.

I saw a chess piece and picked it up, guessing that it was the 'relic' that I had to retrieve. It was a black king piece. I quickly picked it up and shoved it into one of my pockets. It was a very simple task, but I still did had to get back to Beacon. If I had more experience with trees I could have probably climbed up one and just ran across the treetops, but I could barely climb a tree. I was forced to stick to the ground, but it was of no concern to me.

I looked at the Sun in the sky and determined that north to was to my left, judging by its position in the sky. I would have to get back to Beacon quickly, though, as I wanted to do more research into Yharnam. I started heading north at a fast jog hoping to get back by eight.

It didn't take long for me to feel something watching me. It was a feeling that I knew well and could instantly recognize. I kept jogging, trying to make it seem that I had not noticed whoever or whatever was following me. It took a bit more time for me to find a large enough clearing that I was comfortable enough fighting in. It took a few seconds for me to notice anything, but large red eyes started appearing in the bushes around me. My eyes narrowed, realizing that these were the same beasts that had attacked me when I arrived in the forest. They stood on two feet and had a hunched back. They all had little bone armor, though, so the were relatively easy to kill.

The beasts rushed me the moment they realized I knew they were there. I pulled out the Burial Blade in its sword form and charged into one of the beasts. I skewered it with my sword when I ran into it. I immediately pulled it out and slashed behind me, cutting another's face in the process. I saw one of them swing its claws at me in the corner of my eye before dodging under it and cutting its arm off with a single swing. I knew others were circling around me like wolves, but I had to focus on one at a time.

I saw two of them charge at me, one from the front and the other to my left. I charged toward the one in front of me and rolled under it, momentarily confusing it before stabbing it through the stomach twice. I never got out on the others eyesight, though, and it continued charging. I blocked one strike before punching it in the face and decapitating it. I expected more to charge, but none ever did. Instead, one giant one walked out of the forest and charged toward me, probably the alpha.

It had much more armor covering it than the others, so it would be harder to kill. I ducked under its legs as it lunged toward me, dodging its attack. I stabbed it in the back, but my sword bounced off of its armor.

"What is that made of?" I muttered to myself. I transformed the Burial Blade into its scythe form for more reach. I turned back toward the alpha and swung my blade downwards, attempting to cleave it in half. The armor on its head stopped the blade, but instead of bouncing off it slid down the bone and I cut its left arm off. It seemed to get very lopsided with it loosing a ton of weight on its left side. It swung like a drunk man and could barely move without stumbling in some form.

It only took a few moments more for me to end the beast, cleaving it in half by the waist. The rest of the pack ran off in fear and I put my scythe back. The jog back to Beacon only took another 30 minutes. I had no idea how I would get back up, but I decided I had to climb the cliff. It was a harrowing experience, but the threat of death didn't mean anything to me. It was a miracle that I didn't fall, but there were some close calls where I slipped and almost lost my footing.

Ozpin was at the top of the cliff and gave me a strange look as I climbed over the top. I assumed he wanted to ask me about how I teleported to the temple.

"You know there was a ladder on the cliffs idle, right? It's only about a half mile to the left." He said. I looked at him with surprise evident in my eyes. I did not see a ladder on my way up.

"I did not see anything on the cliff side, Ozpin." I responded, glaring at him.

He just chuckled. "Well maybe I forgot to put it there today, Alexander, after all, your arrival was unscheduled and we didn't have much time to prepare, after all." I knew that he was testing me and I could not let it get to me.

He grabbed my hand and helped me over the cliffside. I stood up and looked over at Ozpin, mentally seething at him for his 'test'.

"Thank you, Ozpin." I tried saying without any tone of anger, "Now did I pass the test?"

"Of course you did, and in record time, too. Though your little trick was cheating a bit, so you may not be put in our little record room." He smiled at me. "We don't have any teams with only three members this year, but we could make an exception for you and put you in JNPR."

I thought over his proposition for a bit before responding, "While I appreciate your offer, I would rather work alone, if you don't mind. I have the most experience solo, and would worry about getting my team killed." I didn't know if he would accept, but it was the only way I would be able to safely operate.

"That is an… acceptable term, but you will have to at least work with a team for some missions, they could use another combatant." I knew it was the best offer that I would get from him from the authoritative tone of his voice.

"I accept your terms, Ozpin. I'm guessing I will be linked with JNPR?"

"That is correct, Alexander. While you will not officially be part of the team you will run missions with them when I don't have an assignment for you."

"Alright, I'll do it. Will I be staying with JNPR or will I have my own dorm? I'm fine with either"

"You can choose whichever you like. Be warned, though, that you will have to stay wherever you no up for the next four years." I thought it over for a minute before deciding.

"I will stay in my current dorm." It would give me more opportunity to talk with and train Jaune outside of the dream. "I am fine with no bed, before you ask. I can sleep on the floor."

Ozpin just nodded before walking away and waving at me to follow him. I obliged, and we headed toward my new dorm.

* * *

 **AN: And that is done. I honestly hate the second half of this chapter, as initiation scenes seem overdone. It didn't help that I wrote my first fight scene, either. I just don't like the Emerald Forest at all right now.**

 **Well after my mini-rant I must bid you all farewell, and stay tuned for updates, probably coming out sometime next week**


	4. Chapter 4

The walk felt longer than it should have. Ozpin gave me weird looks every few seconds, like he was thinking about asking me something, but never did. The courtyard was spacious, with a large fountain in the center of it. The statue on top depicted, what I assumed at least, were two famous figures. One of them, the man, was holding a sword in the air while the woman held some sort of axe. One of the creatures I had killed was under them, seemingly roaring or howling.

We continued through the building while I observed everything properly for the first time. My original tour was brief and I did not get to observe anything in detail. What I did notice on the first time, though, was that students were usually everywhere, but I noticed that there were barely any people.

"Why are there so little students out at this time Ozpin?" I asked him. It seemed a bit strange to me.

"It's because classes are starting soon, and many students get to class early." He responded.

"Makes sense, I guess. Being late is not usually a good thing in most social circles, after all. Speaking of classes, where is mine?" I asked him. I had not received any sort of schedule to my knowledge, and Ozpin had just said that classes were starting soon.

"Your first class is with Professor Port, Alexander. It's where I'm taking you right now, actually. You will receive your schedule during lunch, but your next class will be in the arena."

"Alright, then lead onwards, Ozpin."

It took several minutes to get to the class in question. Students gave me weird looks when I passed them. I could not figure out why at first, but I realized after a few minutes it was because I was not wearing a suit like the rest of the men were.

"Why do I not have one of those suits, Ozpin?" I asked.

He looked over at me before responding. "It's because I haven't had time yet. You should have one by the end of the day. If any of the teachers ask just say that it's still being tailored." I just nodded in response. We were in front of the class, so I walked in.

The classroom was spacious, with a large, open area in the front. Mounted heads adorned the walls around a desk in the front of the room. I sat down in the very back row, hoping other students would avoid me. I was attempting to be the creepy-looking guy in the back of the room, the one nobody would talk to, and it worked. Students entering the room would either not notice me or catch sight of me and go in the opposite direction. There were not many students in the class, I would guess about 25 at most. What surprised me, however, was when JNPR walked in. I had not expected to be put in a class with them.

Luckily, they either did not notice me or avoided me altogether. I was happy with either. I did faintly hear students muttering things, likely about me, as I was an enigma to them. A very tall man wearing a torn robe with leather harnesses strapped all around it did not seem like a typical man who would attend any sort of school. I had heard mutterings of 'cultist' and 'freak' in the hallways. I could only smile at the ignorance displayed by these children, if only they knew of what I had been through.

My musings were interrupted when a portly man entered the classroom and started speaking. "Monsters, demons prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey!" He seemed strange, immediately starting off the class with an, admittedly, bad joke in an attempt to seem funny. He started speaking again when he realized nobody thought he was funny. "And you shall, too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy." I zoned out after that, not caring for what he had to say. I just pulled out one of my throwing knives out of its harness and started playing around with it to pass the time.

He rambled on for almost three quarters of an hour before I neared the limit of my sanity. All I could make out was that his grandfather was wise and that the professor was celebrated as a hero in his hometown. I was relieved that he was done with his ramblings, and put my knife away, ready to actually learn something.

My relief was turned to excitement when the professor spoke up. "Now who here thinks that they are the embodiment of a true Huntsman?" I immediately raised up my hand and practically shouted.

"I am!" Everybody looked over at me with surprised looks on their faces. They probably had not thought me to be a talkative person. They would usually be right, but I needed to see what this school had in store for me if I were to continue my attendance.

"Great! Alexander, is it?" The professor asked.

"That is right, professor. May I come to the front for this 'challenge' of yours?" I asked him. He just nodded at me. "Thank you."

I slowly raised myself out of my seat and stalked toward the front of the class, keeping a slow pace. The professor walked off into another room and dragged a darkened cage out of a back room. I knew there was something in it by how it was snarling and rattling around. The creature seemed smaller than any of the beasts that I had fought. I slowly drew my sword and braced myself for an attack.

After a few seconds of waiting the professor chopped the lock off with his axe. When the door fell off I saw a beast with the appearance of a boar. It took several seconds for the beast to notice me, which gave me several seconds to strategize. It suddenly rolled up into some sort of ball and charged at me at blinding speeds. I was prepared to dodge its attack beforehand, anticipating some sort of charge from the beginning.

I sidestepped the charge and turned to face the beast once more. It looked at me with what I assumed was hatred, you could never really tell with abominations such as these. It charged at me again with the same result as before. I knew its armor would be tough enough to resist most of my direct blows, so I would have to hit an unarmored portion. It's stomach did not seem to have any armor, as it would drag on the ground and slow the beast down with short legs like it had. I saw it charge at me again, but without rolling into a ball. I saw my chance for an easy victory and took it.

As the beast charged at me I stepped slightly to the right and caught ahold of one of its tusks and held on with my immense strength. The beast pulled me along for a second before realizing that I had ahold of it and promptly stopped running. I very quickly threw the beast onto its back to expose its less armored stomach. I quickly sliced it open, eliciting a pained squeal that made me smile. I saw an opportunity to terrify the students and took it. I put my hands into the cut in the still living boar and ripped its stomach open. Not much blood spewed out, though, which disappointed me. It's pained squeals reverberated throughout the classroom, causing some students to look at me in horror at the torture I was inflicting.

Tearing open the chest cavity was easy, the skin and muscle offering little resistance to the sheer strength that I possessed. With the beasts insides exposed I let loose, tearing out ribs and organs alike, with no care as to what I did. I needed to terrify the students on my first day, after all, if only for entertainments sake. Out of all of the kills I had accumulated the torturous ones were always the best. The heart was always my favorite organ to play with, though, with how it always seemed to carry the most blood. With great care I tore out the beasts barely beating heart, stood up, and let out a blood-curdling roar. Crushing the heart and letting the blood flow around my body was the most pleasurable thing I had done in a long time.

I looked around the room in amusement, fresh blood still dripping from my body. Various looks of disgust and horror greeted me, with some students looking as they were about to vomit. I knew I looked like some sort of nightmare to them, and I enjoyed that feeling immensely. I gave the class a respectful bow before returning to my seat. Bloodstains were always hard to remove without returning to the Dream and I did not have that luxury until I could find a lamp in the academy.

Class ended soon after my demonstration and I was the first to leave. Blood soaked my robes and the prospect of entering my next class in them made me smile. I knew that I would intimidate people, and I was hoping it would deter people from talking to me. It worked wonderfully, people gave me a wide berth and tried to not look at me.

I wandered the halls for several minutes looking for the arena. There were no maps of the campus, which I thought was weird. Yharnam did not have any maps, but I assumed that the Moon Creature or whatever was responsible for the nightmares of Yharnam trying to confuse me.

It took several more minutes to find something resembling a guide. A sign hung from a room with the word 'arena' written on it with an arrow pointing down one of the halls. I followed its instructions and walked down the hall, hoping that I was close to my class, or else I would be late. Luckily the arena was close, only about 20 feet down the hallway.

I walked into the class to see a large arena in the front with some sort of window above it. I got strange and terrified looks when I walked past people, definitely because of the blood that soaked my robes. A few of the students from my previous class were in the stands, and they actively avoided me. This class was much larger than the one with Port, with at least 80 people in attendance. I sat in a seat close to the front, hoping to see the combatants myself so I could study the various fighting techniques that the students used.

Class started almost as soon as I sat down. The teacher came out almost instantly, and I was surprised to see that she was the same woman that accompanied Ozpin when he came to 'greet' me in the forest. She either did not see me or deliberately ignored me and started speaking.

"Welcome to combat class everyone. My name is Glynda Goodwitch, and I will be your combat instructor for the year." She sounded authoritative, just like she had when we first met. "Now, this class will be devoted solely to improving and honing your combat skills. Duels will be a regular occurrence that you should always be prepared for." It seemed a simple enough system, two students enter, one leaves.

"Now, to start today off, would anyone like to duel?" I did not want to at this moment, I needed to observe how the students fought. I would not have even had a chance to fight first, as two boys immediately raised their hands.

"Alright, Chervan and Plava, please change into your combat attire and meet back in the arena." I wanted to see how these two fought, it would give me valuable insight if I ever have to put either of them down.

Both men were back in less than two minutes dressed for combat. One of them had some sort of loose robe on that reminded me of the Church's choir gear, while the other had a form-fitting blue jumpsuit on with pads of armor scattered around vital areas. They both looked rather strange, but I shrugged it off. My gear made me look homeless from a distance, so I had no right to judge. It did not seem that either had a weapon, but they were probably hidden somewhere.

Both of them walked up to the stage and something strange happened. The large window above the arena lit up with some sort of projection that was split down the middle. The left side had a photo of the red kid's face and a large green bar underneath it, while the left side had a photo of the blue kid's face with the same bar underneath it. Both pictures had names over them, the robed one was apparently named Chervan Bjulgar while the blue one was named Plava Crat.

"Now, as we can see, both boys have a meter representing their individual aura levels." Glynda started. What the hell was an aura? "As most of you know, a tournament-style match ends when one combatants aura goes into the red, as to minimise the danger of injury or death." I was baffled. Why have tournament fights where both combatants survive?

"Are both fighters ready?" Glynda asked. Both men nodded and pulled out some sort of weapon. The Chervan dropped two large daggers out of his sleeves that were connected to some sort of long chain. They looked useful for mid range combat, but would be a hassle in close range. Plava, on the other hand, simply pulled out a small stick from one of his pockets. I had no idea what it could be used for until he pressed something on it. The stick suddenly expanded into something resembling a mining pick.

Before I could analyze anything about his weapon a whistle blew and the match started. Plava rushed forward almost instantly while Chervan held back While swinging his blades around himself, creating a barrier of sorts. It was an impressive display, but I could see several different openings and flaws in his attack. I noticed Plava hesitate before he attempted to charge into the barrier. It was a foolish move, even with the flaws it would be next to impossible to dodge his hits at the speed the blades were moving. He would definitely be caught by at least one of the swords.

My prediction was correct, Plava was struck by one of the blades and fell backwards. I looked up at the stats of the combatants and saw that the hit had taken Plavas meter a good fourth of the way down. Chervan hit hard, but his stamina appeared to be lacking, as he was panting heavily after only about 15 seconds.

The fight lasted only a few minutes longer, as Plava got overconfident and left himself open for counter attacks. It was an impressive spectacle to watch, for sure but it was disappointing in the end. Chervan only got hit once, and it was only a glancing blow. True to her word Glynda called the match as soon as Plava's aura got into the red. As far as I understood aura was some sort of shield that everyone here seemed to have. It was probably what the resistance I felt while fighting those criminals was. It did seem to slow my swings, but offered little resistance overall. I would probably have to tone down the power of my swings if I did not want to kill anyone.

"Now, does anybody else want to fight today? That was a long bout, but we have time for one or two more fights." Glynda announced. I thought about it for a second before raising my hand, hoping to get experience against the Hunters of this world. I was the Hunter of Hunters for a reason, after all.

It took awhile before anyone raised their hand wanting to fight me. Rumors had probably already begun to spread about what I did in Port's class. If students were too frightened to fight me it was not my problem. I would not intentionally try to kill them, it would be an accident if it happened, though.

I walked up to the stage, purposely making myself look as threatening as possible. I needed an air of terror surrounding me at all times so I would not be approached by anyone. I hated people and despised talking to all but a few. My new 'student' would have to be one of these people, no matter how weak he was.

I took my spot on the platform with pride. I saw the window above me light up in the corner of my eye, but did not even give it a passing glance. I had to get myself psyched for the fight, I did not need any sort of distraction. I looked over at my opponent to try and gauge how he would fight. He wore mostly orange, which mystified me. I kind of understood darker reds and blues, but why this bright orange? He would be the first to be seen, and concurrently, the first to be attacked in most encounters. I did not see any sort of weapons on him, but it was probably hidden like the other two's.

I unsheathed my sword, no real need for the scythe, and got into one of my more offensive stances. He narrowed his eyes at me and pulled some sort of staff from his back. I noticed a mid-sized blade come out of the top and bottom of the staff. It would seem that he used some sort of double-ended spear. Very easily countered with some fancy maneuvering on my part. This fight would be a very easy warm up for me.

The whistle blew and the match started. He immediately dashed forward at me in an attempt to end the flight quickly. All I had to do was shift myself slightly to the right and he missed. He seemed overconfident in his combat abilities, time to rectify that. I ducked under a series of swings and thrusts from his spear and punched him in the face. He reeled backwards with the force of my punch, his aura took most of the hit for him, but he still felt most of the force behind the punch.

He seemed be be getting angrier as I dodged most of his swings. He had to know that I was just playing with him at this point. In the few times I did swing my sword at him he did fancy looking, though impractical, flips and jumps around my blade. They would take up much more energy than my more conservative slides and rolls. After a few more minutes of playing around I decided that I wanted to terrify this group of students. I knew that I could not kill the student, but I had no qualms about injuring myself. I had possibly hundreds of blood vials in the Dream, and 20 with my at the moment.

I jumped backwards, putting distance between me and him, goading him into attacking. I purposely shifted around the armor around my chest and stomach so he could get a solid hit in. I knew aura deflected blows, and he would also have to know that. He would expect his blow to be deflected off of my chest with help from my aura. He would not know that I did not have an aura, and thusly not expect his spear to go straight through my body.

I made the universal symbol for 'come get me' with my fingers in an attempt to anger him and make him charge me. It worked perfectly, he was already so angry that he did not expect me to do anything. He rushed me with his spear forward in an attempt to push me off of the stage. I stood completely still, not moving a muscle as he got closer. I noticed that the audience gave me questioning looks to what I was doing, but I ignored them. I needed to focus on my opponent at all times, even when I was letting him skewer me on a spear.

My tolerance to pain was very high, but it always hurt to be stabbed with any sort of weapon, spears being no different. My opponents grin faded instantly as he felt my stomach give way so his spear. I stood tall, ignoring the burning sensation in my stomach. I heard screams from the audience as they saw me get completely run through. Blood dripped from my wound, the spear helping to slow the blood loss.

The room was completely silent, as everyone thought me dead. The silence was broken by me quietly laughing to myself. I got progressively louder every second or two before I was laughing hysterically, the sounds loudly echoing across the room. Nobody knew what to say, they all thought I was going to be screaming in pain.

"The look on your face is the best thing I have seen in a long time!" I loudly exclaimed. "I wish I could have a photograph of this moment, to savor it forever." I kicked my opponent away from me. He let go of his spear in the process, either from surprise or shock.

I quickly sheathed my blade and pulled the spear from my stomach. Blood freely flowed from the wound, but I did not care. A smile graced my face as I fought. I twirled the spear around to get used to the weight before I pressed my attack. I moved faster than most could see, my arms a blur. I swung the spear like I would a staff, smacking him in the face and chest multiple times. He had no chance of blocking without any sort of weapon to speak of. His aura dropped to the red in record time, ending the match. I had the courtesy to let up when I heard the whistle blow, signaling the end of the match.

I threw down the spear next to my defeated opponent and stepped away from him. I quickly pulled a blood vial from my pack and injected it into myself. They always hurt immensely, it felt as if my blood was boiling inside of me for several seconds. I just grit my teeth like I usually did and held back a scream. Even with my incredibly high pain tolerance I still felt the need to. Anybody who looked at me would have seen the large hole in my body seal up and disappear almost instantly.

Everyone stared quietly for a few seconds before Glynda spoke up. "And the winner is Alexander." She did not sound very enthusiastic to announce my victory. She was either still in shock or, more likely, disappointed that I won. I knew she held a grudge against me from when we met in the forest.

Before anybody could say anything I jumped off of the stage and walked back to my seat in the front. I noticed that the people around me were very jumpy and did not look like they wanted to be next to me. I sat down and crossed my arms, observing the stage. I had a small, almost invisible, grin gracing my face for the rest of the class. Nobody else wanted to fight, too scared of the large bloodstains on the stage, I assumed.

When class ended the students around me practically bolted out of their seats in an effort to get away from me. People were probably still in shock at my injury, I even caught multiple students staring at my stomach, apparently looking for any injuries. They would always look away the moment I looked over at them.

I knew that it was time for lunch, but Hunters did not need to eat, the Dream sustained us. We could still eat food, but only for the taste. Our bodies would not get any sort of energy from food, no matter how nutritious they were. Since I had no need to eat I headed back to the dorm that I was staying in. I had no idea how I would get in without a key, but I had my ways.

I approached the door with JNPR imprinted on the front and thought how to get in. I did not want to break down the door as to not cause a ruckus, plus I did not want the teachers to hate me more than most of them did. I thought of what to do for a minute before having an idea. I had never tried to do anything like this before, but I did not want to ask for any sort of help.

I called forth a group of messengers to aid me. When I first saw them they disgusted me and I tried to avoid them as much as possible. Over time, though, they grew on me. They essentially worshipped me and I used that fact to my advantage. Messengers were very useful for carrying messages for me, but I never used the to do anything physical.

"Hello, my messengers." I greeted them like I usually did. "I have a… mission for you guys. I need you to get to the other side of that door and see if you can open it, okay?" They just nodded like they would usually do when asked to do something.

They disappeared under the floor and I waited in front of the door for some time before the knob turned and the door opened. I did not want to ask how they did it, as the were all still in the ground. All I cared about is that they opened the doors. I just nodded at them and waved my hand, dispelling them back to the Dream. I walked into the room and closed the door behind me, finally able to relax. I knew that my uniform was supposed to be dropped off while I was in class. I looked around the room hoping to see a uniform laying around somewhere.

To my surprise a nicely folded shirt was lying on the ground where I had slept last night. I grabbed it and held it against myself. It looked as if it would fit nicely, so I walked into the restroom to change. I saw several students when I walked the halls who were wearing extra accessories on their uniforms, like cloaks and light armor, so I assumed I could add some extra protective gear to my uniform.

I pulled off my hood and cloak, looking at myself in the mirror. Leather and metal armor adorned my body, and I strapped and pulled it all off. There was a large pile of gear in the corner of the room. I felt a lot lighter without all of that metal holding me down.

"I may want to make some lighter armor pieces for myself. I could get used to this light feeling." I muse to myself. It would make sense, just customize some of my old Hunter gear with extra bits and pockets. My charred gear would looked nice, it could work.

I cut my musings off and started to change into my suit. It was relatively easy, as I was used to putting on complicated pieces of armor and clothing. Once my suit was on I looked back in the mirror. I still looked a bit off, so I decided to add a bit extra to my uniform. I took some of my leather knife holsters and wrapped it around my chest for a tiny bit of ammunition in case of attack. It still looked off, but I had an idea. I took the scarf out of my hood and wrapped it around my neck, so it would be able to be pulled over my face.

I pulled the scarf over my mouth and looked at myself in the mirror. It was perfect. I was wearing a proper uniform while still keeping an air of mystery and individuality. Before I got out of the restroom I heard the door open and several people walk in, talking about some trivial matter that was of no concern to me. It was most likely JNPR, who I would be bunking with for the duration of my stay in Beacon, however long it would be. I was about to step out of the restroom before I heard one of them speak up about me.

"Alexander is terrifying! He tortured that boarbatusk and, somehow, survived being stabbed through the stomach. If he's willing to do all of that what else can he do?" Whoever said it sounded worried. I could tell it was a female by the tone of voice, but could not tell who she was talking to. "I just don't want a person like that staying in our dorm."

It did not worry me that they felt like that, as I expected them to. The only person who I even remotely cared about was Jaune, and that was only because he was my apprentice. He needed to be able to control his bloodlust, if only so I would never have to kill him. I did not enjoy the murder of those close to me, Gehrman being the prime example.

I knew that whoever was in the room would have to go into the restroom at some point, so I just decided to stack up my gear and walk out. It did not take long to get everything organized to my standards. The armor was the most annoying part, with it constantly falling out of place. I continued to hear talking from the other room about other subjects not relating to me.

Their musings stopped as soon as I walked into the main room. They heard the door open and looked toward it, probably expecting someone else. What they saw, though,was the person that they were just discussing. It was Pyrrha and Nora who greeted me on the other side of the door.

I put down my gear in the corner in which I slept and took a deep, exaggerated bow. "Ladies, how wonderful it is to see you here, in OUR dorm." I said in my most polite tone. Pyrrha looked at me in horror, while Nora just giggled. I could tell who was badmouthing me just by how the were reacting. "You know, it is not very nice to talk so negatively about someone behind their backs like that, Pyrrha."

"I wasn't trying to offend, Alexander!" She seemed fearful, as if she was expecting me to murder her. I could continue this charade, but I did not want to be murdered in my sleep. Death was never a pleasant experience, no matter how it happened. Jaune could not know that dying was part of the job until he absolutely had to. I wanted to see how he would react to his first death.

"It is fine, Pyrrha, I want to be feared by everyone. I am purposely making myself seem as unapproachable as possible. It is right to be afraid of me, though." I responded, trying to sound calm and approachable.

Surprisingly Nora stayed silent throughout our entire conversation, listening to what I had said. I needed to come to an understanding with my partner team, if only to encourage teamwork and cooperation.

"I understand, Alexander, and I'm sorry about talking about you like that." She did not need to apologize, but it was a bonus, if only to guilt trip her. I just nodded in response and walked out of the room. I wanted to see what the dining hall would be like so I would be able to at least act normal.

* * *

It was a long and lonely walk, there were barely any students walking about, and those that were actively avoided me. I knew rumors were already spreading about me, it was what I wanted, after all.

The dining hall was a rather large building in the center of the campus. The multitude of large windows on the outside showed an impressive inside view of the room. Dozens of tables lined the room, with possibly hundreds of students seated at the various tables talking with each other. The entrance doors were large, easily allowing me entrance with my 6'7" frame.

The room had not quieted as I walked in as I had hoped. People just seemed to ignore me, which I was fine with. I looked around the room, hoping to catch sight of Jaune in the large crowds. I spotted him on the other end of the room, sitting at a table talking with a few other students, all female. Strange, I did not expect Jaune to be a very social person by the way he acted. Perhaps my initial judgements of him were wrong, after all.

I never got to hear what he was talking about, mainly because the moment the girls caught sight of me they stopped talking and looked at me with mixed looks of fear and disgust. They had either seen my torture of the beast or my fight with the other student, maybe even both. The only one who did not seem at least a little scared was the one with black hair, who seemed to be ignoring me.

"Hello, ladies." I bowed respectfully. "My name is Alexander, how are you?" They looked put off by my polite demeanor.

"Oh, uhh… this is Alexander, my teams... bunk mate." Jaune stuttered out. He needed work on his social skills, even I could pretend to care about others in a more graceful manner.

"It is a pleasure to meet the four of you, though I do not know your names yet." The girls looked somewhat shocked at my politeness. They had probably expected me to be either a jerk or maniac.

The one dressed in red responded first. "HI! I'm Ruby!" She was an enthusiastic one, that was for sure. "And this is my team! Say hi guys!" Her yelling would get on my nerves if it kept up.

"Hey." The yellow one said dismissively. "Name's Yang" She gave a halfhearted wave. She seemed fun.

"I am Weiss Schnee." She said it like I was supposed to know who she was. I would have to ask later.

"Blake" The final one responded. She still seemed to be on edge about me. The large bow on the top of her head seemed strange to me, but I just assumed that was normal in this area.

"I am honored to meet the four of you." It was not a lie, but I did not see myself socializing with these four much. I needed to put as much effort as I could into training Jaune in the ways of the Hunters. I needed to become a mentor to him like Gehrman had for me.

"I apologize for any interruption, but I must take my leave. Farewell you four." Before anyone could respond I turned around and walked away, back into the crowd. I knew it seemed rude, but I did not feel like talking with anyone at the moment. I only came here to get to know the building and maybe talk to Jaune. My first task was a success, but my second was not.

It did not matter to me in any way, though. A social life is a good thing for most people, and Jaune was no exception. I had little contact with anyone during the Hunt, and had adapted to being alone, which was fine with me. Most people were either idiots or weak, which were the two worst things anyone could be, in my opinion.

More people were in the halls on my return trip then there were on my way there. Lunch was almost over, so that would probably explain why. Two hours of free time seemed a bit excessive, but it was probably a time meant for training purposes or getting to know one's team. I had little use for either one of them. I was already a masterful combatant and had no team of my own.

I could speak to JNPR, but I had all the time in the world for them, plus they seemed a bit wary of me after my various demonstrations of brutality throughout the day. I thought it would have horrified Jaune, but he showed no external fear when we spoke. It was strange, I thought he was going to be more of a coward by the way he acted around me when we first met.

It did not take long to get back to the dorm. I had a knack for memorizing areas my first time through. Beacon seemed complicated, but once you got the hang of it the building was a simple building to navigate. Yharnam was always a very hard city to navigate through without a map, which I never had, and that is why I was so good at memorizing locations.

The door opened easily enough, and I was surprised to see that the dorm was empty. It would seem that the girls had left. Being alone was always good, at least for me. Human contact was really not my thing. I was observant, yes, but had trouble properly socializing with others. Small talk was not a thing I excelled at, which would make forming connections… difficult. I did not need to talk to people, but I needed it to seem like I at least cared about others.

With nothing else to do for several more hours I decided to just sit in my little corner. Nobody would probably get to the room for some time, assuming that they were training. With nobody to talk to I simply closed my eyes and returned to the Dream.

* * *

 **AN: And after about three week I'm finally finished. I could throw excuses around as to why it took me so long, but the answer is simply writer's block and procrastination on my part. Not having any sort of story outline has its detriments. I'll try to update more frequently, but no promises.**

 **A real problem that I've been having is characterization. Alexander was originally a supreme douche to everyone, but I rewrote parts of this at least four times to make him seem like he just wanted to have people not talk to him.**

 **Other than that I've got nothing to say, so until next time (whenever that may be).**


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